Parts for aircraft, automobiles, other vehicles, and/or other devices, systems, or structures may be fabricated from metals and/or alloys such as aluminum, steel, titanium, and the like. Various processes can be used to form the parts including forging, stamping, casting, machining, and the like. In some instances, however, parts having complex geometries may be difficult or impractical to obtain by way of forging, stamping, casting, machining, or other similar processes.
Similarly, some metal parts are heavy and/or dense relative to other materials. As such, other approaches to forming parts or components or devices may be desired to reduce weight of structures or devices embodying the components or devices. Thus, various approaches to replace metal parts with parts obtained with other manufacturing processes and/or materials have been attempted.
In one approach, plastics or other polymers may be injected into a mold to form a part. Injection molding of plastics, however, may provide parts that have less strength relative to metal parts. Thus, while injection molding is a relatively inexpensive manufacturing process, the reduction of weight and/or manufacturing costs may be outweighed by a reduction in structural strength, manufacturing throughput rates, and/or reliability.
In another approach, a compression molding process is used to mold chopped fiber thermoplastic material. While this process works acceptably for forming the parts in a relatively inexpensive manner, the parts obtained via this process generally have wide variability in terms of strength. Because of this variation, each part obtained must generally be mechanically proof-tested to ensure the part complies with strength requirements.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented.